SCOTTISH Secretary Ian Murray has repeatedly refused to say the new UK Labour government will not overrule its devolved counterpart to see nuclear projects built in Scotland.
The Labour MP was speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland on Tuesday when he was pushed on whether the UK Government under Keir Starmer might step in to force through planning decisions, despite the area being devolved to Holyrood.
Murray repeatedly refused to rule out any planning decisions being taken by the UK Government over the heads of local people or devolved representatives.
Instead, he said it was “really important” for Labour to deliver on pledges in its manifesto – which includes promises to “end a decade of dithering” and build new nuclear power stations.
Pushed on whether the UK Government and GB Energy could overrule Scottish politicians to build a new nuclear power station in Scotland, Murray said: “GB Energy will have a whole suite of offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, tidal, new fledging technologies, hydrogen, nuclear. All of those things are in the mix.
“Therefore it's up to the governments to make the case that how important this has to be. I mean, we have Sizewell and Hinkley Point already being built in England. It's really important that they are because that gives us the baseload of what we require as a country in terms of our energy needs.
“So, it's really important for us to continue to make the positive case for why these things are necessary and work very closely with the Scottish Government in partnership to make sure they can happen – if that is indeed necessary for them to happen.
“So, this is really, really important. We have a mandate for our manifesto. Our manifesto contains some really bold missions and policies that will transform the country, create jobs and make the cost of living crisis better for people in the longer term. And we have to make sure we can deliver those.”
In 2022, the Tory-run UK government said it would not overrule Scottish ministers to build a new nuclear plant north of the Border, despite also considering building a nuclear plant in Ayrshire.
In 2024, former Scottish secretary Alister Jack told the Lords Constitution Committee that he had asked the Department for Energy and Net Zero to plan for a nuclear reactor to be built in Scotland as part of a UK-wide programme, which would ignore SNP concerns.
Elsewhere on the BBC Good Morning Scotland show, Murray was pushed on the future of the Grangemouth refinery, which is due to close as early as next year to be turned into a finished fuels import terminal, risking hundreds of jobs.
New Prime Minister Keir Starmer and SNP First Minister John Swinney discussed the plant’s future in their first official meeting on Sunday.
The new UK Government has so far refused to say if public money could be used to save the jobs at the refinery, owned in partnership by Ineos and PetroChina.
Speaking to the BBC, Murray said the refinery was a “hugely important priority”.
“The Prime Minister and the First Minister discussed this on Sunday, it was the very first briefing that I got when I was appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland on Saturday morning,” he added.
“The bottom line here is we’ve got both governments fully focused on trying to find a way through in terms of Grangemouth.
“There will be, hopefully, fairly positive announcements soon on a way forward.”
There is a “huge opportunity”, Murray said, in turning the refinery into a hub for the creation of aviation fuel.
But asked if public cash would be invested, he said: “The bottom line at the moment is that we don’t know the answers to those questions – nobody does.
“That’s why the Scottish Government, UK Government, the trade unions and the company are working very, very hard together to find a way through this huge problem that we have at the Grangemouth refinery.”
Pressed on whether funding would be made available, he added: “We’ll have to look at what we can do to try and find a way through this.”
